Monday, March 30, 2015

HB 477 will reverse Baxter and send a clear message that medical killings are prohibited and against public policy. Individuals will be protected from the medical establishment, individual doctors and family members with something to gain.

A. Involuntary Medical Killings.

Throughout the US, there are increasing reports of involuntary medical killings.[1] Consider a 2012 case against Kaiser Healthcare. Doctors killed the patient, a wealthy older man, through a “terminal extubation.” His daughters had allegedly urged this result in order to obtain large inheritances.[2] In Montana, examples include Dr. James Mungas, who was killed under the guise of hospice/palliative care. His widow, Carol Mungas, states:

It is traumatic, still, to realize his last communications were attempts to get help.[3]

B. Likely Problems

Baxter has created confusion in the law and has emboldened some doctors and family members to publicly admit participation in assisted suicides. If HB 477 is not enacted, this situation will likely lead to defacto legality and the following problems:

1. New paths of elder abuse, especially for people with money.Legal assisted suicide creates new paths of elder abuse. Consider, for example, the Thomas Middleton case, where legal physician-assisted suicide in Oregon was part of a financial elder abuse fraud.

2. Steerage to suicide.It is well documented that Oregon's Medicaid program steers patients to suicide (suicide is covered in lieu of treatments for cure or to extend life). Private health plans and providers have this same ability. To learn more, see this affidavit by Oregon doctor, Kenneth Stevens, MD.

3. Pressure on patients. See this letter by Marlene Deakins, RN, describing the pressure put on her brother after he merely asked a question about assisted suicide in Washington State.

4. More conventional suicides, including violent suicides.

In Oregon, conventional suicides, including violent suicides, have substantially increased with legalization of assisted suicide. This is consistent with a suicide contagion. The financial cost of these suicides is "enormous." For more information, click here.

5. Pressure to expand to non-terminal people.In Washington state, there have been "trial balloon" proposals to expand its law to non-terminal people, including those who have simply fallen on hard times. See e.g., this column in the Seattle Times, suggesting euthanasia for people without money for their old age.

On Thursday, March 29, the bodies of Adrienne and Charles Snelling were found. Police believe Charles killed Adrienne -- her exact cause of death is still pending -- and then shot himself. Only last December, Charles Snelling published in the New York Times a poignant and widely-circulated piece about loving and caring for his wife with Alzheimer's disease. (Columnist David Brooks, whose query for life stories initiated Snelling's piece, wrote in his column yesterday about this case.)

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Today, the Montana House of Representatives voted to pass HB 477, which clarifies that "physician-assisted suicide" is prohibited and against public policy in Montana. To view HB 477, please click here.

Wednesday, March 4, 2015

SB 5919, clarifying that patients who request assisted suicide have the right to be told about options for cure or to extend life, has PASSED the Senate! The vote was a bipartisan, 34-14, with one member excused. To see the vote breakdown, click here .